Canada's most flamboyant pot activist
In 1923 it became illegal for Canadians to possess marijuana. But the laws have always been flouted, by recreational users who just want to get high, and by medicinal users seeking relief from pain and illness. From cannabis cafés to courtrooms, doctors and patients, rabble-rousers and senior statesmen have engaged in a passionate debate over marijuana possession. But the laws have endured.
• Malmo-Levine was arrested on Dec. 4, 1996 during a raid on the Harm Reduction Club, Canada's first public marijuana store. Police seized 316 grams of marijuana and Malmo-Levine was charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking. At trial he applied to call evidence in a constitutional challenge claiming that pot is harmless. That challenge progressed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
• Marijuana laws, like seatbelt and helmet laws, are in part based on the "harm principal" that limits individual liberty in order to protect individuals from harm. Malmo-Levine's appeal to the Supreme Court argued (among other things) that distributors like the Harm Reduction Club actually make pot safer, so the "harm principal" does not apply.
• The appeal also asks the court to consider if marijuana laws violate the equality rights of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, "as it applies to 'substance orientation' and in not applying equality to every producer and distributor of stimulants and relaxants, whether bean, grape, herb or otherwise."
• In an unusual move, in December 2002 the Supreme Court appeal was delayed after Justice Minister Maurice Cauchon announced plans to introduce legislation decriminalizing marijuana.
Program: Big Life
Broadcast Date: Dec. 2, 1998
Guests: Ezra Levant, David Malmo-Levine, Rosie Rowbotham
Host: Daniel Richler
Duration: 7:16
Last updated: December 3, 2014
Page consulted on December 3, 2014
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